Patriots: Once again, Tom Brady faces a familiar mile-high hurdle

The Patriots are rolling, having won four straight to climb to 6-2, and the Broncos are reeling, having lost four straight to fall to 3-5.

But when they meet for the 53rd time Sunday night in a rivalry that dates to 1960 and the good ol’ American Football Conference, fans from Mount Katahdin to Mount Elbert shouldn’t be shocked if a bit of role reversal occurs at Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

“I think, again, we’ve always had some tough games out there,” said Matt Patricia, who joined the Patriots’ coaching staff in 2004 and has coordinated the defense since 2012.

No hyperbole there.

When it comes to playing in the Mile High City, the Patriots are eminently familiar with coming out on the low end of the score during the Bill Belichick-Tom Brady era.

The BB-TB Patriots are 3-7 (.300) at Denver, including 0-3 in the playoffs. Two of the losses were in overtime and one was by two points, but there were also setbacks of 11, 8, 14, and 10 points.

“Obviously, you play on the road it’s tough communication-wise,” Brady said. “But when you play good teams I think the margin of error is even slimmer, and this team has always had a good football team.”

That’s true.

But Brady has faced plenty of good football teams on the road over the course of his Canton-bound career and, excluding the Broncos, he’s gone 90-35. That’s a .720 winning percentage, more than double his lack-of-success rate in Denver.

Playing at altitude in front of one of the best fan bases in the league are also factors to some degree.

Denver is 5,280 feet above sea level — thus the Mile High moniker — making it the highest major city in the United States. Foxboro checks in at 289 feet.

“It factors in, I suppose, but you can’t think about it,” special teams captain Matthew Slater said. “I think the more you think about it the more an issue it becomes. You’ve got to do what you can to control what you can control as far as hydration, rest, and things like that and then when you get in there you can’t think about it. You’ve just got to play.”

As for the fans, they’ve been filling every seat in whatever facility the Broncos have called home since 1970. The sellout streak will reach 392 games Sunday when 76,125 mostly orange-and-blue clad fanatics fill Mile High.

They show up early, stay until the end and are so enthusiastic and energetic during critical or celebratory moments the stadium literally shakes.

“It’s an amazing place to play a home game,” first-year coach Vance Joseph said. “Our fans are educated, they’re into it, they love the football team here. So it’s definitely a fun place for us to play and a hard place for the opponent to play.

“We’ve been on the road for three weeks now, so this is our first game back here in a month. So I’m expecting the fans to be engaged and be into it and obviously that can help you versus a guy like Tom Brady, who can put his offense in better plays each play.”

Brady has been heavily touted as the GOAT since winning a fifth Super Bowl in February. Remarkably, he’s been a goat on more than one occasion in Denver.

Brady threw four interceptions in a 31-20 loss in 2001. Yes, it was his fifth career start, but it came against a Broncos team that finished 8-8.

He also threw an ill-advised, red-zone interception to Champ Bailey that completely swung momentum in a divisional round playoff game the Broncos pulled away to win, 27-13, in 2005.

As Brady put it, “You can’t go out there and make a bunch of mistakes and expect to win.”

Brady has lost to Brian Griese, Kyle Orton, Brock Osweiler, Jake Plummer (twice), and Peyton Manning (ditto) in Denver. Excluding Manning, those QBs finished their careers a collective 15 games over .500.

As for Belichick, he had rookie Chris Harper field punts on a snowy, Sunday night in a critical late-season matchup in the Rockies in 2015. Harper, who had nominal experience as a returner, muffed a punt in the fourth quarter with the Patriots seemingly in control.

The Broncos recovered, converted and went on to win the game in overtime. That decision ultimately proved to be the tiebreaker that gifted the Broncos, rather than the Patriots, home-field advantage in the playoffs.

So it was the Patriots who traveled to Denver for the AFC Championship two months later where, of course, they lost as the Broncos went on to win Super Bowl 50.

The Patriots are rolling and the Broncos are reeling. Who comes out on top when this rivalry resumes remains to be seen, but if Belichick and Brady go down in Denver football followers shouldn’t be surprised.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.